Gallery Girl
by Diablo Chica
Summary: The lure of money it too tempting for any human to resist....Including my exgirlfriend, who is getting married to my exbest friend. OneShot. Just to clarify, this is slightly AU


**A/N: One-shot slightly inspired by Mario Vazquez's song 'Gallery'. It's a wonderful song and I recommend listening to it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters…or the song…blah blah blah….**

_I can't take  
Seeing you with him  
'Cuz I know exactly what you'll be,  
In his gallery  
It's just not fair  
And it's tearing me apart  
You're just another priceless work of art  
In his gallery_

Every time I look at her, my heart aches so badly I think it may burst.

It wasn't fair, seeing her on his arm everywhere I turned. They both had big smiles plastered on their faces. Polite laughs at unfunny things the other said. The latest and greatest clothes _his_ money could buy. Too much makeup hiding that natural beauty we all knew _she_ had.

He was the richest guy in the Wizarding world and like all the other girls she had gotten sucked into his world.

It was the same ploy each time. He would pick some gorgeous girl, shower her in extravagant things, get her into the world of high-class parties, and then give _The Daily Prophet_ some details about her private life that would ruin her entirely.

Every female I had met who had gone out with him had believed that they would be The One. The One whom he would cherish above all others.

I ran in the same circles as he did, that bastard. I met all of his girlfriends. With some of them he would even drag out the affair to engagement, which was what he was doing with this particular woman.

I had known her in school, known her before the makeup and gaudy dresses. When nothing else mattered besides a good grade and getting by in the world. Known her when she was allowed to have a day with her hair down and maybe a little greasy, when there wasn't the smallest trace of makeup on her attractive face.

They had started dating then, right after she dumped me. It was the last month of our final year at Hogwarts. She had told me that it was better this way. After all, we had never really gone public with our own relationship. With him she could tell anyone and everyone without remarks.

Perhaps that was when I should have recognized the change in her. She had never cared about people saying things about her before she started hanging around him. It was one of the reasons I had fallen in love with her. Secretly, due to the fact that she was my best friend.

I don't know what it was that attracted her to me and caused her to confess that she had more than friendly feelings towards me. But with him it was the money.

I would never think to condemn her because of her actions. No human being was immune to the attraction of having anything they wanted, no problems, no questions asked. Money went farther than magic no matter where you were.

We ran into each other regularly, always being invited to the same kind of parties. For a while she wouldn't talk to me, but after she decided I had no more romantic feelings for her she talked to me like we were back at school.

Oh how I pined for her.

The day he proposed she came to my house to tell me before it hit the papers. I suppose I should have felt honored—because at least that meant that she still thought of me—but the news cut through my heart like a knife through butter. But I smiled and said all the right things.

But after a month I could stand it no longer. I had to talk to her. So I invited her to go to the Leaky Cauldron with me. A nice, casual place where surely she wouldn't be too distracted by anyone.

"Thanks for coming," I say, hardly hearing the words even as they leave my mouth.

"Of course I came, darling!" she replied. Ever since she had gotten involved with him everyone was 'sweetie' or 'darling' or 'sugar'. It made me sick.

"Look," I said, reaching for her hand, "I wanted to talk to you about…about him."

"What about him?" She was looking vaguely nervous now.

I took a deep breath. "He's going to dump you."

She pulled her hand back as if my touch had burned it. "No he's not. He loves me. He told me that I'm different than the other girls. He wants to be with me."

"Please listen to me. I've known him longer than you. He doesn't care. He'll never care. Not like I do."

"What are you saying?" she asked, looking panicked now.

"I. Love. You. I always have, and I always will. He won't. I _know_ him. You're just another pretty face to him!" She turned away. I leaned over the table, took her chin in my hand, and forced her to look at me. "Dump him first. I'm begging you."

She whimpered and I sat back in my seat. "It's the same pattern. He did the exact same thing with Irene Fevray. Do you remember her? They got engaged too, dammit! And then a month before the wedding he broke up with her. Nadine Soddy. Two weeks before the wedding. What if he decides to leave on the wedding _day_ this time? I can't bear to see you like that. Leave him."

Her striking eyes filled with tears. "I know what he is," she said in a strangled whisper, "and I know what he does. But I—I've fallen in love with him."

She continued speaking but I heard no more. She loved him? I had just poured my heart out to her, and that's the response I get? She knew everything about him and she actually loved him?

"Look, Remus, I love you too. But as a brother. I'm sorry. I'm going to marry him and that's final." Lily Evans—future Potter—stood up and wiped away a few tears on her cheek. "I'll see you around I guess."

I watched the woman I love walk out the door to continue her life with a man I hated. A man who used to be my best friend until he and Sirius decided to use my lycanthropy to get back at our schoolboy enemy.

James Potter actually did hang on to her. They were married in November that year. The next year she got pregnant, and along came baby Harry.

They diedwhen Harry was a year old. I can't honestly say I was too torn up aboutJames's death. But when I heard Lily had died as well, my world crashed around me and I wondered…what if I had held on to her?

**A/N: Not the ending you were expecting, eh? (At least I hope not.) I used to be a rabid Remus/Lily shipper until I actually sat down and thought it out. But I still wanted to write a story about the two, minus a happy ending. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review. **


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